


Biscuit Trails

by whitetiger91



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Family, Black Family Drama, Christmas, Christmas Presents, Competition, Family Drama, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Gen, Good Narcissa Black Malfoy, Hansel and Gretel - Freeform, POV Narcissa Black Malfoy, Pet, puppy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 14:49:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13216092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitetiger91/pseuds/whitetiger91
Summary: There is nothing more precious to a young girl than her pet—even to a Black. Modelled off the classic fairytale, Hansel and Gretel.





	Biscuit Trails

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Celinarose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celinarose/gifts).



******_December 1966_ **

“Sooty! Hurry up and clean this paper up. Girls, go and get your cloaks on and be ready to leave in ten minutes.”

“Now, now, Druella, Walburga can wait. I have one more present here,” her father said.

Narcissa looked at her father, excited not because he had an extra gift, but because he had delayed the possibility of heading to Grimmauld Place for at least another few minutes. Although she knew that the sooner they got there, the more likely they would leave when her mother and aunt got into yet another argument, it was a prospect she preferred to avoid altogether if she could. Both of her cousins, Sirius and Regulus, would be there, and she didn’t know if she could stand yet another day hiding from the boys’ pranks.

The man grunted slightly as he dragged a large brown-papered box out from behind the tree. “This present is for my girls. I expect it will come in handy for all three of you, and I have no doubt you will all show some responsibility in caring for it. If not, I shall be returning it immediately.” her father said.

Narcissa raised a thin eyebrow at Andromeda, who shrugged in return. She knew that her sister was thinking the exact same thing as she was: what in Merlin’s name had their father bought for them, and why? The man barely even knew what the gifts that their mother bought them were each year; his role was more often than not simply handing over the Galleons to their mother and signing a card on occasion. Judging from their mother’s disapproving frown, though, it seemed that they were all unaware of their father’s plan.

They didn’t have to wait long to find out. Bellatrix crawled forward and began tearing at the box’s paper. Large brown strips of paper fell to the carpet, as did the spell-o-tape sealing the lid together. After ripping it open, Bellatrix turned to their father with a pout.

“Parchment?” she said, holding a scrunched-up ball.

“There are several layers to it, mostly to prevent any smell,” he said, nodding back to the box. “If you cannot be patient enough to find out what’s inside, perhaps you do not deserve it after all.”

Narcissa glared at her sister’s back; it was just like Bellatrix to spoil a treat. Well, she wouldn’t let her ruin this one. She crept forward and helped Bellatrix paw through the parchment, placing the scraps beside her in a neat pile.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of digging through parchment, they pulled out a smaller box. It shook in their grip, causing Narcissa to almost drop it. Thankfully, Andromeda held it steady, and after shooing away Bellatrix’s hand ripped off the final piece of spell-o-tape.

Large, clear bubbles of air floated from within the box to the ceiling, but it was what was inside the box that captured Narcissa’s attention. There, panting away, was a small, black German Shepherd puppy.

Its wide brown eyes blinked as it looked at each of the girls’ faces, its pink tongue hanging out from its mouth.

“Were there no brown dogs?” Bellatrix sat back. Still, when the dog bounded out of the box and onto the settee, she smiled a little.

“Really, Cygnus, a dog?” their mother shrieked, pulling her gifts out of the way. “It will ruin the house!”

Their father gave a short whistle and the puppy bounded over to him. It sat at his feet with its tail wagging, and he scratched its ears.

“He will need to be disciplined; I expect him to be more obedient than a house-elf. However, it will be good to have some extra protection for our girls outside, and will hopefully ready them for when they take command of other creatures in the future.”

“But a mongrel?”

“He is a purebred, make no mistake,” their father answered.

Their mother wrinkled her nose but argued no more. Instead, she ordered the girls to collect their cloaks so that they could finally be off to Christmas lunch.

The puppy trotted over to her, his tail continuing to wag and his nose sniffing the air. Narcissa didn’t care that they were still going. As she gathered him into her lap, careful not to soil her new dress robes, she knew that she would be able to endure whatever Sirius and Regulus threw at her, if it meant coming back to such a companion.

* * *

**_December 1967_ **

“Ok… now… sit!”

Narcissa smiled as Procyon sat down, his large, fluffy tail thumping against her bedspread. She reached across to her bedside table and, taking out a small biscuit from a paper bag, placed it in front of him.

“Good boy!”

Looking back at the treats bag, she saw that it was almost empty. Procyon had gone through seven bags of treats that week alone, and her parents had refused to spend money on extra food. They had claimed that Procyon was getting too fat too soon, but Narcissa hadn’t wanted him to starve. Using the change her mother had given her to buy a set of new brass scales during their last visit to Diagon Alley, Narcissa had slipped away to the Magical Menagerie and bought two packets of treats.

She should have learnt her lesson, however, and taken to rationing the biscuits; two packets were simply not enough.

“I’ll try and buy you some more at school,” Narcissa said, her heart aching at the way Procyon stared at her. It was as if he knew that she would be leaving him for several months.

When he whimpered in response, Narcissa sighed. She picked up the bag of treats and tipped what was left out onto the bed. She made a mental note to clean up any crumbs before her mother saw them. Thankfully, the problem was taken care of as he licked the quilt clean.

“I am not friends with a Mudblood! I don’t know why she would make that up but it’s not true!”

“Don’t you dare speak to me in that tone! Your sister wouldn’t lie to us!”

Narcissa closed her eyes and gathered Procyon up in her arms, holding him to her chest. She listened to his heartbeat, even as he tried to wiggle free from her grasp, using it to calm her own. It seemed to drown out the voices of her sister and parents from downstairs, but only just.

“I wish I could bring you with me,” she whispered.

Procyon finally stopped squirming, and it was a good thing, too, for he now weighed almost twenty-five kilograms. Narcissa gasped as something wet and rough scraped her cheek. When she opened her eyes, she saw that it was his tongue.

“No wonder Bella let me have you,” she said, wiping her cheek.

Still, she had meant what she said, and though she loved Hogwarts dearly, she could not wait for the summer holidays.

* * *

**_July 1968_ **

“Procy! Procy!”

Narcissa tried to whisper as she crept around the manor, but it was becoming harder and harder as she found each room empty. She had thought that Procyon would be waiting for her near the door when she got home—as he usually did whenever she returned from school—but he was nowhere to be found. After searching the outside grounds, she had turned her search indoors, wondering if he had perhaps snuck inside.

“Procy! Where are you, boy?” she said, walking into the drawing room.

Unfortunately, she had been too busy looking for him that she hadn’t noticed her mother sitting in one of the armchairs.

“What in Merlin’s name are you making all that racket for?” her mother said, peering over the cover of the book in her bony hands. “A girl should be seen and not heard, or have you forgotten?”  
Narcissa straightened her back, having been just about to look under the coffee table. “I apologise, Mother, I did not mean to disturb you. I was just looking for Pro—something.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, but, I should have been more careful not to displace it. Nevermind, I shall look elsewhere.”

Narcissa turned on her heel, eager to leave before her mother realised Procyon was inside. Her dog would not have been in the drawing room anyway, for he always seemed to cower in her presence.

However, her mother’s next words stopped her in her tracks.

“He isn’t here,” she said.

Narcissa turned around, her heart thrumming in her chest. “Who isn’t?”

“That dog of yours.”

“Why—wha—” She knew she was stammering, and she cleared her throat. “Where is he?”

Her mother didn’t look up from her book. Flipping a page, she said, “I sent him to live with Walburga. This place wasn’t built for a dog.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she blinked them away. She knew it was impossible that her mother had sent her dog to live with her cousins. For one, her Aunt Walburga hated animals more than she hated Mudbloods, always complaining that their fur and claws ruined furniture. Even so, Sirius would have bragged to her at school if they had taken in her dog.

Her head was now throbbing and she walked from the room. Once out of sight, she ran up the staircase and into her room, her heart breaking as she tried to remain composed.

“You know she was lying, don’t you?” Bellatrix asked.

Her sister was leaning up against the frame of her bedroom, watching Narcissa with a smirk on her rosy lips. Narcissa pushed past her, heading straight for her bed. With an undignified hiccough, she flopped down onto it, burying her head in a pillow.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic; it was just a mutt. You could probably get a new one next Christmas.”

Narcissa lifted her head off the pillow and glared at Bellatrix. Andromeda was usually the one she turned to for help, but she hadn’t thought that Bellatrix would be so callous. “I don’t want another one,” she said.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes. “If you insist.”

Narcissa sniffed. “I’ll just have to get Procy off Sirius next visit.”

Her sister’s smirk grew wider. “Oh darling, you really are naive. Procyon isn’t running about at our dear cousins’ house. Why, I’m not even sure it is even running around at all. Mother dumped him into the forest months ago, who knows where he is now?”

Narcissa fought the urge to throw a pillow at her. “You’re lying!”

“Oh? Remember that fleabag I got for my sixth birthday? He didn’t just run away you know.”

Narcissa thought back to the beautiful black kitten Bellatrix had received for her birthday years before. She hadn’t really known the cat, but she did remember having felt jealous that both Bellatrix and Andromeda had had pets and she hadn’t. She hadn’t been allowed to play with him, both by Bellatrix’s orders, and by her mother, who feared that the cat would scratch Narcissa’s beautiful porcelain face and mar it permanently.

Bellatrix nodded. “I thought so. Well, after he turned out to be not so cute, Mother got rid of him. She and Father took him out behind the house into the forest, and when they came back, my cat was nowhere in sight. They told me he ran away, but we both know that’s just the sort of underhanded thing Mother would do.”

Narcissa’s blood turned cold. The forest behind the manor was dark and spooky, even more so than the Forbidden Forest. She never really ventured there since Bellatrix had told her that evil fairies resided within, waiting to turn her into one of them. The forest was deep, and she knew there was a good chance that once someone went in, it was unlikely they would come back out again.

“Father wouldn’t let that happen. He bought Procy for us! If he was so unhappy with him, would he at least not try to find a better home?”

Bellatrix shrugged her shoulders. “What is a couple of Galleons to us? You should just be happy that it wasn’t a house-elf.”

Narcissa watched through blurry eyes as her sister flounced from the room. She refused to listen to her, no matter how true her words seemed. Her mother might have been harsh, but surely the woman wouldn’t do anything that would destroy her daughter’s happiness… would she?

* * *

**_September 1968_ **

She was down to her last bag of treats, but she had to try. She placed each one in a single line, just as she had every day that summer.

Ever since she had written to Regulus and had it confirmed that her dog had not been adopted by them, she had started her search for Procyon on the property. It had begun with a walk into the forest, mustering up all the courage she had had. It wasn’t much, though, and after only a few hours of aimlessly wandering around, calling his name, she had tried to retreat. As she had expected, however, she had gotten lost in the trees and brambles, her arms scratched by thistles and leg muscles sore. If it hadn’t been for Andromeda appearing from behind a tree, her nose and eyes red as though she had been crying, she would probably have been stuck there overnight to fend for herself.

Andromeda had forbidden her from returning to the forest with the threat that she would tell their father and mother, and Narcissa had promised not to. She hadn’t promised to stay away from the edge of the forest, though, and her next plan had formed. Risking a hiding from their father, Narcissa had spent the money she had been given for new school robes on biscuits instead. When she had returned home, she had gone straight to the forest edge and laid a trail of the treats towards the house. Procyon was a smart dog, and he had a good nose on him; with luck, he would eventually sniff out the treats and find his way home.

Even if other forest critters, including a few squirrels, ducks and gnomes, had gobbled up the biscuits some days, and the rain had turned other trails into mouldy puddles on others, she wouldn’t give up. Now and again, she swore she could hear barking, but every time, it would only be the wind.

Behind her, a twig snapped, and Narcissa jumped. Swirling around, she saw that it was only Bellatrix.

“I thought you were Father,” she said, turning back.

Bending down, she placed a final biscuit in line and turned her gaze towards the forest. A slight breeze had picked up earlier in the afternoon, and now it made the branches of nearby trees sway.

“You really are hopeless, aren’t you? It will never come back,” Bellatrix said.

Narcissa turned and fixed a glare on the girl. “ _He_ will come back, I know it.”

Bellatrix rolled her dark eyes. She looked down at her fingers, examining the cuticles. In a voice barely above a whisper, she asked, “What will you do if it doesn’t?”

Narcissa shook her head. “He will.”

Her sister fixed her dark eyes on her, and there was something within them that made Narcissa take a step back. “But if it doesn’t? What will you do to Mother?” she urged.

“I—” Narcissa went to say that she would do something terrible to her mother, but what that was, she didn’t know. What she did know, however, was that she probably wouldn’t have it in her to take revenge if the time came. Instead, she shrugged and said, “I hate her; she’s an old witch.”

Bellatrix almost looked disappointed that that was all she said. “Your dog was boring anyway, probably not worth the effort. Anyway, you need to come back inside and finish packing. We leave early tomorrow before the crowds.”

Narcissa sighed and glanced back at the forest. She had thought she had heard barking in the distance, but the trail of biscuits was still there, untouched. When she looked back at Bellatrix, she saw that the girl was tapping her foot.

“Look, I wasn’t going to give this to you until you were finished, but if it stops you from moping around, I’ll do it now.” She fished around in her cloak pocket and pulled out a small package wrapped in brown paper. “Here.”

Narcissa’s hand wavered, her gut telling her not to accept a package from Bellatrix. She took the package anyway, though, and kept an eye on Bellatrix as she slowly tore the paper open.

“Oh.”

Dropping the paper, Narcissa turned towards her. Inside was a stuffed toy dog, with similar colours to Procyon. Its fur was almost as soft as Procyon’s had been—was—and it even had an emerald-green collar around its neck.

A warmth that Narcissa had not felt in a long time enveloped her body, and she looked up at her sister. “Thank you, it's… it's beautiful.”

“At least you can keep this one in the house,” Bellatrix said. Narcissa took a step toward her, a free arm outstretched to fold her in a hug, but the girl moved back and wrinkled her small nose. “Just don’t let me catch you carrying that thing around school. Even for you, it’s a bit babyish. Now, come on; if you’re not packed by dinner, I will be telling Mother.”

Bellatrix flounced off back towards the house, long dark curls bouncing trailing down her back. Narcissa hugged the dog to her chest and followed, eager to avoid upsetting her mother again. As she ran after her, however, she thought she could hear a dog barking, and she hugged the toy harder.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! All comments would be greatly appreciated, especially as this is for a competition and marking is tough!  
> This was first and foremost a present for Cel (Celinarose). You are more appreciated than you'll ever know <3  
> I'd like to give a big thank you to my wonderful betas Dessie, Jenny, and Sarah. The work still needs tweaking for word count and prompt purposes, but these ladies did an amazing job helping me out (and I fear what you would have read otherwise). Sarah came up with the name Procyon (a constellation meaning 'the little dog'), and I'd like to also thank Maisie for volunteering to beta as well :)  
> This was written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition's Training Camp, Round 1. I am on the Penzance Pegai as Chaser 1. My prompts this round were Hansel and Gretel (of which I used some themes), and the words 'hate,' 'underhanded,' and 'sore.'  
> I'm afraid most of my works for this competition have underlying issues they try to cover, and I'm not sure why this happens. For this story, I was half inspired by the sad fact that people receive pets (like cats and dogs) for Christmas, but after a few months or years, they dump them, simply because they aren't as cute anymore, or they may have an injury, or they can't afford to keep up with the responsibility that comes with pet ownership. I don't mean to be a Nagging Nancy, but I do hope people consider this when giving or receiving animals as presents, as they deserve nothing less than a happy, healthy and safe to live in; they are not a toy that can be put down when a person gets bored.  
> Happy New Year! Xx


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